Paul Grubbs - Religious Poetry and Christina Rossetti
Looking over Christina Rossetti's poems, there was a consistent, almost overpowering denial of earthly indulgence in favor of prioritizing spiritual matters. Looking over some articles from the IUP databases to get a little more direction in that regard, many critics focused their attention on her early bouts with intense illness, that seemed to cripple her in some ways physical and social. These issues occurred near the onset of puberty, which further complicates an understanding of her ascetic approach that gave such fearful overtones to sexuality. Although it's always tempting to allow biography to overwhelm a text, these details seem relevant, if not perhaps transformational, in considering the religious work she left.
It also seemed that there was a critical bent toward seeing matters of religious dedication through a decidedly contemporary frame. Rossetti is repeatedly described as if she is protesting the anguish of forsaking the temporal for the eternal in a way that I think tends to reveal more about the critic than the text. Our contemporary entitlement to present happiness and instant fulfillment dismisses the logic of delayed gratification to such an extreme extent that is seems many readers approach her work determined to discover what her subversive message is because the seemingly intended ideas are so contrary to our 21st century emphasis on individual satisfaction. I think self-denial of her extreme (though not as extreme as her sister Maria, or others) proves very alien and almost threatening to an author writing from the present vantage point.
I am fascinated by Christina's denial of suitors on religious grounds and was curious (though unable to locate) specific information about the doctrinal differences that divided her two engagements (it seemed the second man had moved from Christianity entirely, but the first was more complex.) This reminded me of Fanny's refusal to marry Henry on purely moral grounds, despite several traits and advantages that made him attractive in the eyes of others. Rossetti's principled stand, which could be celebrated as an assertion of self-determination in a patriarchal society by a woman who had achieved the independence that accompanies fame, seems to be more often viewed as a doctrinal cage that inhibited her passions and darkened her existence. I wondered if she'd have understood those tension in that way.
When it comes to a poem like "The Convent Threshold," something that bothered me directly from the text is a false binary she constructs between the two poles of "life in a nunnery" and "an illicit ongoing affair with this person who is unwilling to conform to my doctrinal beliefs." At first it seemed to me this was melodramatic - aren't there a whole range of options between those two poles? But then again, looking at my limited knowledge of her biography, it seems understandable that this would've been her view of the world, as her sister forsook marriage for the convent and she herself repeatedly failed to convince admirers, even those she loved, that religious conversion was worth sustained engagement and marriage. To me the poem provided a powerful window into her own insecurities - her conviction that no earthly man would ever be willing to make hard sacrifices on her account is heart-breaking. She sees men, it seems, as perhaps willing to briefly exploit her physical pleasures but not demonstrate considerate regard for her prioritizing of the spiritual. Whether or not that was an accurate view of her options, the face that this was her perception is incredibly sad.
Looking over Christina Rossetti's poems, there was a consistent, almost overpowering denial of earthly indulgence in favor of prioritizing spiritual matters. Looking over some articles from the IUP databases to get a little more direction in that regard, many critics focused their attention on her early bouts with intense illness, that seemed to cripple her in some ways physical and social. These issues occurred near the onset of puberty, which further complicates an understanding of her ascetic approach that gave such fearful overtones to sexuality. Although it's always tempting to allow biography to overwhelm a text, these details seem relevant, if not perhaps transformational, in considering the religious work she left.
It also seemed that there was a critical bent toward seeing matters of religious dedication through a decidedly contemporary frame. Rossetti is repeatedly described as if she is protesting the anguish of forsaking the temporal for the eternal in a way that I think tends to reveal more about the critic than the text. Our contemporary entitlement to present happiness and instant fulfillment dismisses the logic of delayed gratification to such an extreme extent that is seems many readers approach her work determined to discover what her subversive message is because the seemingly intended ideas are so contrary to our 21st century emphasis on individual satisfaction. I think self-denial of her extreme (though not as extreme as her sister Maria, or others) proves very alien and almost threatening to an author writing from the present vantage point.
I am fascinated by Christina's denial of suitors on religious grounds and was curious (though unable to locate) specific information about the doctrinal differences that divided her two engagements (it seemed the second man had moved from Christianity entirely, but the first was more complex.) This reminded me of Fanny's refusal to marry Henry on purely moral grounds, despite several traits and advantages that made him attractive in the eyes of others. Rossetti's principled stand, which could be celebrated as an assertion of self-determination in a patriarchal society by a woman who had achieved the independence that accompanies fame, seems to be more often viewed as a doctrinal cage that inhibited her passions and darkened her existence. I wondered if she'd have understood those tension in that way.
When it comes to a poem like "The Convent Threshold," something that bothered me directly from the text is a false binary she constructs between the two poles of "life in a nunnery" and "an illicit ongoing affair with this person who is unwilling to conform to my doctrinal beliefs." At first it seemed to me this was melodramatic - aren't there a whole range of options between those two poles? But then again, looking at my limited knowledge of her biography, it seems understandable that this would've been her view of the world, as her sister forsook marriage for the convent and she herself repeatedly failed to convince admirers, even those she loved, that religious conversion was worth sustained engagement and marriage. To me the poem provided a powerful window into her own insecurities - her conviction that no earthly man would ever be willing to make hard sacrifices on her account is heart-breaking. She sees men, it seems, as perhaps willing to briefly exploit her physical pleasures but not demonstrate considerate regard for her prioritizing of the spiritual. Whether or not that was an accurate view of her options, the face that this was her perception is incredibly sad.